1988 d'Issan
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Tasting notes
The 1988 d'Issan, served from double magnum, is showing its age despite the large format. It has a rather rustic, leafy and autumnal bouquet that would benefit from more fruit. The palate is well balanced with slightly coarse tannin, masculine and rather stolid with an austere finish more akin to a Saint-Julien. It is not a terrible 1988 at all and certainly better than the bottle poured at the château just a few weeks earlier. I just believe it has seen better days. Tasted at the d'Issan dinner at the Palace of Westminster.
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More reviews and scores
The 1988 d’Issan, a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot, has a light earthy and leathery nose that, like some of its peers at 30 years of age, lacks fruit and feels rather enervated. The palate is medium-bodied with hard dry tannin, a distant tang of weak black tea mixed with leather. But the bottom line is that this Margaux is very austere and past its best on the finish. Tasted at the château.
The 1988 is unacceptably light, sinewy, and lacking fruit. Moreover, this medium-bodied wine has excessive acidity and tannin. D'Issan is normally a light, delicate wine, so it is foolish to expect the power of a blockbuster wine, but this is a disappointment. Last tasted 3/95
Lovely sweet fruit on the nose, with chocolate and flowers. Full-bodied, with soft tannins and a velvety tannin structure. Tobacco and berry fruit on the finish.—'88/'98 Bordeaux blind retrospective (2008). Drink now. James Suckling,Wine Spectator 2009.